


Replay

by PansexualPancakes



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: "time loop" cliche, Freaked Out Carlos, M/M, also freaked out cecil, freaked out nerds together, honestly really cliched, multi-chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 07:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4779077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PansexualPancakes/pseuds/PansexualPancakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After over three years, Carlos thought he'd seen everything. There was absolutely nothing that could surprise him anymore. </p><p>Well, he certainly wasn't expecting this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A multi-chapter story! Gasp!  
> Wow, I did it!  
> I'm...just going to let you read it now.

"Carlos, wake up." Cecil said, shaking the scientist slightly. Carlos made no move to get up, and he didn't even seem to be awake. 

"Carlos, wake up!" Cecil said a bit louder, shaking Carlos more. Carlos still slept. 

"Carlos, wake up!" Cecil practically screamed, shaking Carlos wildly and jumping on him, but there was still no response from Carlos. 

Huffing, Cecil grabbed the blankets that Carlos had managed to wrap himself in and pulled, causing him to fall into the floor along with them. 

"Carlos, I think you fell out of bed!" Cecil said, feigning surprise. 

"Cecil..." Carlos muttered from inside the blankets. "Did you wake me up before the alarm again?"

"No, of course not!" Cecil assured. The alarm buzzed in a low, haunting tone and Cecil slammed the snooze. "Okay, maybe a little." He grinned. "But I'm really excited that you're going to do a whole show with me today! Station management was totally against it at first, but I told them you could do cool science stuff, and-"

"Okay, Ceec, I get it." Carlos interrupted, struggling out of his blanket prison. "I get that you're excited. But can you tone it down a bit? You just woke me up, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Cecil nodded and Carlos trudged into the bathroom to get ready. 

~•~

"Oh my gosh Carlos, this is gonna be so much fun!" Cecil said, practically dragging his boyfriend behind him. 

"Yeah, got it." Carlos muttered, still half asleep. 

"And also-" Cecil began but never finished. 

"What, Cecil?" Carlos asked, stopping and following Cecil's eyes. 

"What." Cecil said simply. 

The radio tower on top of the station was glowing a brilliant blue, which definitely, even in Night Vale, wasn't normal. 

"I'm going in!" Cecil announced and began running to the station door. 

"Cecil, no!" Carlos yelled, following the radio host inside. 

"Intern Candy?" Cecil called out. "Are you in here?"

Carlos caught up to him. "Cecil, no one's here. And I checked, station management's office has ceased to exist."

"Oh, that just means they've gone home." Cecil shrugged, then started panicking again. "Carlos. Look. In the studio."

Carlos turned and looked, then his mouth dropped open. In the studio, there was a strange human-like figure composed entirely of the same blue light that the radio tower was emanating. The figure turned around and spotted them, then its somehow possible features bent into a scowl and it disappeared. 

"Is it g-" Carlos began, but he was cut off by a bright blue light that grew and enveloped everything.

Then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly didn't expect this to be done so fast.   
> But I had an anxiety attack, and writing calms me down so...yay?

Cecil blinked his eyes open. He sat up. Somehow, he was back in his bed. He turned to see Carlos snoring away next to him. He looked at the clock. Even though clocks couldn't be trusted, he saw that it read "6:56 am". The alarm was going to go off at seven. Then he blinked. He squinted at the small date printed underneath the time on the face of the digital clock. 

"September 20th..." He whispered. "That can't be right." 

Of course it couldn't be 6:56 am on September 20th, it had already been 6:56 am on September 20th. 

Ignoring its impossibility, the clock changed to 6:57. 

Cecil frowned. Time travel or extreme déjà vu could only occur on a blue moon in March or April. This wasn't right. This most definitely wasn't right. 

The clock indignantly changed to 6:58. 

Cecil cocked his head to the side. Maybe the clock was broken. He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and checked its date and time. 

September 20th, 6:58 am. 

Both clocks changed to 6:59. 

Cecil got out of bed, definitely confused now. Something had to have caused this. 

Then he remembered. The strange figure. The blue light. That had probably somehow caused this. 

The alarm went off. 

"Morning." Carlos mumbled into his pillow. 

Cecil hit the snooze. 

"Carlos. Something's wrong."

"Yeah, the Faceless Old Woman probably took us back home." Carlos muttered lazily. 

"Carlos. The clock." Cecil said, frowning. 

Carlos sat up. "I see it, what's wrong with it?"

"Look at the date, Carlos."

"Hm, what's wrong with-" he paused. "Oh my god." He got out of bed too, and shook his head in disbelief. "Oh. My. God."

"I think maybe-" Cecil began, but Carlos interrupted him. 

"Cecil. Cecil, it's the morning again."

"Yes, but I thought maybe-"

"Oh my god, what's causing this?"

"Well, I thought-"

"The blue light! Oh my god. It was that."

"Yes. That." Cecil nodded, frowning again. He didn't particularly like being interrupted. 

"Cecil, we need to fix this." Carlos decided, going straight into scientist mode. "This isn't scientifically possible, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to investigate."

"Carlos!" Cecil screamed, getting Carlos' attention. "Carlos. I...I know what that thing is."

"You...what?" Carlos asked. 

"Way back when, we had a Boy Scouts badge for technical engineering. One of my old friends...he thought he was going to invent time travel." Cecil gulped. "And...he did. But his machine gained sentience. The electricity left the machine and used its power to put the town in a time loop. But..." Cecil gasped. "Carlos, no one else knows about this."

"About what?" Carlos cocked his head to the side. 

"The creature...only people within ten feet of it realized the loop existed. We were...able to destroy it." Cecil gulped. "After being stuck in the loop for...a few years or so."

"Wait." Carlos' eyes widened. "So...only we know there's even a loop?"

Cecil nodded. 

Carlos smiled slightly. "But...you've beaten this thing before, we can do it again, right?"

"Uh..." Cecil scratched the back of his head. "Well..."

"Cecil. What's wrong?" Carlos asked. 

"Well..." Cecil gulped. "It may or may not require that you or I die."

"Wait. What?" Carlos' mouth dropped open. 

"You see, the creature sustains its power using the few people who are aware they're caught in its loop...so when one dies, it's enough of a change for the creature to lose its power." Cecil bit his lip. 

"You killed your friend?" Carlos exclaimed. 

"Uh no. Some other kid who was aware of the loop got some free cancer from the hospital." Cecil shrugged. 

"Cecil..." Carlos sighed. "It took you years to figure that out?" 

"Yeah..." Cecil muttered. 

"And also..." Carlos took a deep breath, then practically screamed, "If neither of us die, won't we be caught in the loop forever?"

"Uh. Maybe just a little." Cecil replied nervously. 

"This is it." Carlos fell backwards back onto the bed. "The rest of my life will be September 20th." 

"No, I'm sure we can find some other way!" Cecil insisted. "Maybe if someone else is aware..."

"Cecil!" Carlos screamed. "We are not killing anyone!"

"I was kidding!" Cecil put up his hands in defense, even though he obviously wasn't. 

Carlos took a deep breath. "Cecil, I'm going to the lab. I need to do some tests."

"Can I come?" Cecil asked excitedly. 

"No, Cecil, you can't just-" Carlos began, but then the blue light returned and enveloped everything.

Once again, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gASP  
> It's BACK  
> Okay I'm done now.   
> Chapter 3 might be up soon if my anxiety persists, but I still want to keep you in suspense.   
> Just wait.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it again.   
> It's short I know, sorry.

Carlos shot up, finding himself back in bed. 

"Damn it!" He frowned. "I'm just going to have to leave now, before this thing loops again..."

He turned to see Cecil, also sitting up, eyes wide. 

"Ceec...what's wrong?" He asked tentatively. 

"I..." Cecil muttered. "It shouldn't have..."

"What shouldn't have?" Carlos asked. 

"The loop." Cecil said simply. "That was too soon."

"Too...what?" Carlos asked. 

"It's supposed to loop at the same time, every day. It...it looped about five or ten minutes early." Cecil replied nervously. 

"Shit." Carlos gulped. 

"Exactly." Cecil nodded. "I knew something was wrong. That thing shouldn't exist. At least...it shouldn't have enough power to hold up a loop. It would need much longer to rest and recharge first." Cecil gulped. "And it doesn't have enough power to hold up a loop. Which means..." Cecil began, and Carlos finished it for him, quietly and slowly. 

"The loop is set to self destruct." He finished. "The whole thing will get shorter and shorter until it collapses in on itself and we all die with it."

"Pretty much, yeah." Cecil nodded. 

"Cecil, I need to get to the lab." Carlos decided. He got up, threw a lab coat from the closet on over his pajamas (a faded t-shirt and fleece pants), slipped on a pair of flip-flops and ran out the door. 

Cecil got up and quickly followed behind.

"Carlos, you don't get it! You can't stop it!" Cecil yelled after him, but Carlos had already taken the car and was driving away towards his lab. 

Cecil was left in the dust, breathing heavily. Then he had an idea. It was a crazy idea. It probably wouldn't work. 

But he sure as hell was going to try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you couldn't guess by now, all Carlos is going to do in this fic is repeatedly attempt to get to the lab before the loop and repeatedly fail.   
> And Cecil has a plan, good for him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By (surpisingly) popular demand, I updated!
> 
> Yay!
> 
> And unfortunately, I have been told NOT to give you the feelsy ending. 
> 
> Happy ending it is, I guess.

Yet again, Carlos shot up in bed. 

"Seriously?" He asked no one in particular. 

He turned to say something to Cecil, but found the other half of the bed empty. 

~•~

Cecil ran down the street as fast as his bare feet could carry him. He knew where he was going, and he knew he didn't have much time. 

Literally. There was very little time left. 

He rounded a corner and sprinted the final stretch, collapsing onto Old Woman Josie's porch. 

"Need something, dear?" The old lady asked, sipping her tea and rocking in her rocking chair. 

Cecil stood up. His last hope was that Josie's (not actually real) angelic protection had allowed her to be aware of the loop. 

If not, he would have to die. 

"Yes. I need something desperately." Cecil nodded, panting. "Are you aware-"

"Oh, this time loop?" Josie asked. "Why yes, strange, isn't it?"

"Josie, I need..." Cecil gulped. He hadn't been prepared to get this far. "Is there anything your obviously non-existent angels can do to fix this?"

"Hm, well that is a great question." Josie nodded. "I believe they could-"

Cecil shot up in bed. "No!" 

He jumped out and ran again, faster this time, cutting his foot on glass, but he knew he was literally running for his life. He kept going. 

He made it back to Old Woman Josie's house faster than before, and panting, asked her, "What could they, even though they aren't real, do?"

Josie smiled up at him from her chair. "Well, if they could see the source of the problem, I'm sure they could do something about it."

"Oh, of course!" Cecil nodded excitedly. "You see, it's at-"

He shot up in bed once again. Not even taking time to express his disappointment, he began running again. He avoided the glass this time, luckily, and reached the house faster than any other time. 

"The radio station." He finished. "In my studio."

"Of course, dear." Josie nodded, smiling. "I'll send the Erikas over as soon as I can."

As if on clue, the tall, glowing, winged creatures that always followed the old lady around appeared, towering over the two other figures on the porch. 

"Are you sure they can fix this?" Cecil asked, worried. 

Josie nodded. "The next loop will be the-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* new episode tomorrowwwwwww

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points to anyone who can name the reference at the very beginning. I literally quoted it word for word (except for Carlos' name) so hopefully someone got it.   
> This will update pretty irregularly, but hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.   
> Bye!


End file.
